KUALA LUMPUR – HO CHI MINH – SIEM REAP – BANGKOK TRIP

Coming from our South Korea trip, the travel itch continued and I reckoned that the upcoming holy week break would be the perfect time.  Perfect because I would be done with all the April 15 tax filings then... Yahoo!  But then March arrived and the airfares were soaring high day by day.  It was a habit already to check all airlines daily hoping for a fare steal.  Then on March 3, an answered prayer; AirAsia went on sale, not bad at P5600++ return trip for Manila - Kuala Lumpur.  I booked at once, originally for a 6 day trip.  I plotted our itinerary and the flights in between but I failed to squeeze all 4 country plan in such a short time.  So I rebooked making it an 8-day trip but was charged a P1600 fee... Okay, okay... I know, my bad.  After our return flight was confirmed, I booked the rest of the flights, all through AirAsia; Kuala Lumpur - Ho Chi Minh, Siem Reap - Bangkok and finally Bangkok - Kuala Lumpur.  

An actual account of our 8-day Indochina amazing race trip crossing 4 countries (excluding Philippines) on a shoestring as follows:

KUALA LUMPUR – HO CHI MINH – SIEM REAP – BANGKOK TRIP

  

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2D/1N MT. KINABALU CLIMB - Day 2 [The Summit Trek]

Continued from MT. KINABALU CLIMB - Day 1

We had 4 hours of straight sleep but thereafter, hubby was up every 30 minutes to check the time… Grrr… until he decided to have a feel of the weather outside around 12mn.  As early as 1am, we joined the early risers for a coffee and light supper.  Then at 2am, we started the final 2.7KM trek under moonlight and a freezing temp.  The wooden stairs made up most of the first 500meters and it felt climbing a 30-storey building but in an open air.  At the last resthouse, my wintery attire brought a strangly-feeling so I decided to remove my inner layer.  And before I knew it, flock of climbers overtook our trail.  Sister continued with her trek not knowing that we were left behind.  According to her, from her view above, the sight of headlamps lining up the trail resembled a parade of fireflies torching the night.

The rope guided single pile trail from KM6.5 to Sayat Sayat Hut limited us from over taking.  The longer we stayed on the trail, the more arduous the trek has become.  I started losing hope of a sunrise view at the summit. After the Sayat Sayat Hut, I restored my inner layers as the cold breeze hailed the final kilometre.  The spare gloves saved my numb hand that was dampened by the ropes.

At 530am, we reached the South Peak 8KM marker.  700 meters away, the lamp of the early summiteers at Low’s Peak, where sister was among them, was already visible and the sight of sunrise at the back of Donkey Ears and Ugly Sisters Peak wanted to speed up my pace.  But unfortunately for hubby, his “mind over matter” conviction was not enough as the weary body tore him down.  Every time he says, “sorry mommy the spirit is willing but the body is not and this is the most that we can be”, we sat down to enjoy the scenery and I somehow accepted our fate.

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2D/1N MT. KINABALU CLIMB - DAY 1 [Timpohon Gate to Laban Rata]

Our Kota Kinabalu flight was originally scheduled at 325pm but a month prior to our trip, Cebu Pacific moved the time to 11pm.  Whew… that meant arriving at KK at around 2am then immigration and baggage collection of about 30min to 1 hour then travel to hotel of about 10mins.  I simply meant that with that schedule, we only have about 2 hours spare time prior to the climb proper. 

We have no ringgits with us as exchange is usually available at airports but sadly for KK their exchange was up to 10pm only.  We didn’t knew how and where to have one until a Filipino-speaking driver approached us and offered a ride to the hotel.  Hubby asked if he accepts dollar but he said peso will do.  So even with scepticism, we grabbed the offer.  At the hotel, our next issue was the full payment of the climb package.  As they don’t accept USD, we agreed for them to retain our passports with a promise to keep it safe and intact until our return. 

  
At 530am, our tour coordinator Jackz Lee of KinabaluTourGuide was already at the hotel to fetch us.  His greeting goes, “we’re already late by about 17 minutes and we need to hurry up to catch up with our itinerary”… Whew… after some introduction and short orientation, at 6am we’re on a private ride to Mt. Kinabalu jump-off.  And for our ringgit issue, he graciously exchanged some USD so we can have some bills for our personal needs.

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